New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark announced her country was suspending military ties with Fiji in response to what she called a coup in the South Pacific country.
In the first international sanctions in response to the situation in Fiji, Clark told Parliament that military ties were being suspended and senior military officers and their families would be banned from traveling to New Zealand.
"The whole way in which the commander is mounting his coup is to get the prime minister to do his job for him, to get him to resign," Clark told reporters later.
"This is an outrage what is happening in Fiji today."